Computer systems are becoming increasing pervasive in our society, including everything from small handheld electronic devices, such as personal data assistants and cellular phones, to application-specific electronic devices, such as set-top boxes, digital cameras, and other consumer electronics, to medium-sized mobile systems such as notebook, sub-notebook, and tablet computers, to desktop systems, servers and workstations. Computer systems typically include one or more processors. A processor manipulates and controls the flow of data in a computer by executing instructions.
To provide more powerful computer systems for consumers, processor designers strive to continually increase the operating speed of the processor. Unfortunately, as processor speed increases, the power consumed by the processor tends to increase as well. Historically, the power consumed by a computer system has been limited by two factors. First, as power consumption increases, the computer tends to run hotter, leading to thermal dissipation problems. Second, the power consumed by a computer system may tax the limits of the power supply used to keep the system operational, reducing battery life in mobile systems and diminishing reliability while increasing cost in larger systems.
For instance, power adapters generally consume more power than most other individual components of the notebook computer. To operate the internal components of notebook computers, external power adapters may be utilized to charge battery pack(s) and to supply power to the rest of the internal components of the notebook computer simultaneously. However, in current designs power adapters may become overheated and/or have functional failures, especially when used in a non-controlled environment.
The present invention addresses this and other issues associated with the prior art.